Successful change in South Carolina communities using MAPP- a community-based assessment approach

Pamela S Gillam, MPA, Center for Health Services & Policy Research, School of Public Health, USC, University of South Carolina, School of Public Health, Carolina Plaza, Columbia, SC 29208, 803-777-0350, gillamps@sc.edu

How did Clarendon County land a transportation coordinator to deal with its growing problem of transportation? Why did Orangeburg County health department employees have their job descriptions changed to include the coordination of community health assessment processes? These counties are two of six local Turning Point initiatives in South Carolina who will highlight their work and explain how a community health assessment process has made significant change in their counties.

South Carolina Turning Point, an initiative funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is a state and local collaborative whose mission is “to transform and strengthen South Carolina’s capacity to protect and improve its public’s health by merging professional expertise and community wisdom with political will.”

The six local Turning Point initiatives were funded to conduct community health assessments using CDC/NACCHO’s assessment tool, MAPP.

Lessons learned and best practices from each community are currently being documented to describe how each one put the “public” back into “public health.”

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this session, the participant will be able to

Develop an understanding of why community health assessments are important to public health system planning.
Articulate the benefits and challenges of engaging grassroots community people in the assessment process.
Identify tools and practices useful for engaging grassroots community people.

Keywords: Needs Assessment, Community Planning

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation

Developing A Community-based Infrastructure For Assessment, Planning, And Evaluation-II

The 132nd Annual Meeting (November 6-10, 2004) of APHA